US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton impressed with Adelaide's facilities

AS A strategic pitch to let Hillary Clinton know what Adelaide offers, it was a diplomatic triumph.

Penelope Debelle

AdelaideNowNovember 16, 20121:30pm

NaN:aN

October 1st 2015

2 years ago

AS A strategic pitch to let Hillary Clinton know what Adelaide offers, it was a diplomatic triumph.

The US Secretary of State - the first to visit South Australia - said her predecessors did not know what they were missing.

"I am greatly impressed with the work being done here to keep Australia strong at home and abroad," she told workers at the $300 million Techport marine defence facility at Osborne.

Her visit, at the end of two days of AUSMIN talks in Perth, was the closest thing the US Secretary of State gets to having a day off. After a morning reception at Government House where she met Governor Kevin Scarce and his wife Liz, her cavalcade headed for the Lefevre Peninsula, home of the Australian Submarine Corporation and a host of American defence companies including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

Her visit there, arranged at short notice when she expressed interest in visiting SA, was a timely long-term ploy to interest the US in the maintenance of its US Pacific fleet of 180 ships at the dry dock facilities at Osborne.

"An opportunity may come and she may sit somewhere in the approval process, or she may be having a conversation with people in the Pentagon and mention us."

Security at Techport is routinely high and yesterday it was ramped even higher.

Media were signed into the site 90 minutes early and in the hangar where she later spoke, two snipers were discreetly in position high above the crowd.

Just after 11am, an escort of motorcycle police and a fleet of cars and vans swept along the tarmac, among them the black BMW carrying the Western world's most powerful woman.

With Finance Minister Penny Wong and Premier Jay Weatherill, Mrs Clinton spent almost half an hour inspecting the Common User Fac-ility where the submarine blocks are assembled.

It was a powerful image: A woman inspecting military hardware and speaking with substance and authority about the next generation of air warfare destroyers, the Joint Strike Fighter program between Australia and the US, the Growler upgrades to our Super Hornets and the Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning systems.

She was not there to make announcements but to engage in the soft diplomacy of mutual advantage between friends who see the world the same way.

"It is in our DNA," she said of the Australian-US alliance. "We are not fair weather friends."

She was interested, and impressed, and for someone in her position that was enough.

Mrs Clinton has advised the President she will not accept a second term as Secretary of State and there is speculation she may use the next four years to position herself for the next Democrat presidential nomination, the second Clinton in the White House.

It made her appreciation of South Australia's defence capability she called us "one of the great critical industrial centres of the world and the heart of Australia's defence manufacturing" all the more meaningful.

After speaking for 15 minutes, Mrs Clinton left the platform and shook hands with a select group of Techport workers who had been allocated front-row seats.

"This is a great place, I'm not surprised she thought it was as well," said John Gallagher, a mechanical fitter who migrated to Adelaide from the UK.

"It's positive for any future contract, certainly."

With events worsening in the Middle East, it was thought Mrs Clinton might address the potential outbreak of a new war in Gaza but media questions were not allowed.

After leaving Techport, she continued to enjoy Adelaide, sampling Penfolds wine at the showcase Magill Estate, following in the steps of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall just over a week ago.

A US embassy spokeswoman said last night Mrs Clinton was expected to have a quiet dinner, probably at the InterContinental Hotel where she was staying.

She was planning a private night with phone calls to Washington about the escalating Middle East crisis before flying out this morning for the East Asia Summit in Singapore.